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[REVIEW] ‘The Distance Between Us’ By: Kasie West

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she’s beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Review:

I first read this book a few years ago, I’m not quite sure when, although I know I must have borrowed it from a library that first time. I think this was actually the first Kasie West book I ever read, and since then I have obviously read a ton more. As anyone who has read any of my book review before, you know that I absolutely love YA contemporary romance, and Kasie West is one of my absolute favorite authors of it.

I’m a sucker for the ‘rich guy meets poor girl’ or vice versa types of tropes, which I must say work much better in YA than they do in adult books. Kasie pulls the trope off beautifully, and I loved every second of reading it. I actually read the whole book in one day…today. Xander is ridiculously dreamy, and I loved his personality and how he complemented Caymen. All the characters in the book are multidimensional, but I really loved getting to see Caymen’s transformation throughout the book. Caymen’s sarcasm is amazing, and it made her such an interesting and captivating character. The dialogue exchanges between Caymen and Xander were so awesome and witty, mostly because of Caymen’s dry humor and Xander’s responses to that. I found myself smiling constantly over how cute the book was, and how cute they were together.

The ‘career days’ that they both plan for each other were such great additions to the story. It really showed a lot of their own personalities through their choices, and also how much they cared about one another based on the thoughtfulness that went behind each day. I was also a total sucker for the adorable exchanges they have with the pre-sipped drinks and with Xander walking her to school everyday. So. Freaking. Cute.

I also liked the supporting characters, Skye, Henry, and Mason. They each had distinct personalities but added a lot to Caymen’s story as well. Having the Caymen’s mom own a porcelain doll shop was definitely an interesting setting that I haven’t read about before, so it was cool to see how that influenced the plot. Caymen pops up super briefly in Kasie’s other book, ‘On The Fence‘ (which is an awesome book too, obviously), and so does Skye, so if you read this one first (which I would highly recommend doing) you’re going to love that one too!

Overall, this is an awesome contemporary novel, and if you haven’t already checked out Kasie West’s books, you’re missing out!

Connect with the author!

You can follow Kasie West on Instagram at @kasiewest and on Twitter at @kasiewest!